Pepperdine Libraries News

Library News

Change at the Corner of Manchester and Vermont

A few months ago, the archives received a reference question asking us to search for photos and information about early landscaping at George Pepperdine College, at the campus located at 79th and Vermont in Los Angeles. Hmm, tough… While I searched the archives for pictures of landscaping and the Los Angeles campus, the first collection I went to was the George Pepperdine College records. The collection was recently created by gathering materials from University Archives files (mostly papers and photographs) about Pepperdine between 1937 and 1972 not already divided into other collections.

What completely surprised me was a pile of photographs in the middle of an enormous stack — panoramic photographs of the intersection of Manchester Avenue and Vermont Avenue, just half a mile south of the site of the Los Angeles campus! Best of all, there were five photographs, taken in 5-year intervals to document the changes at the intersection from 1920 to 1945.

Notice how the Clark Drug Store stays consistent in the early photographs (but gets a building upgrade!), and how there is even a Western Auto Supply Company store in the 1930 and 1940 photographs? Take a closer look for yourself to see how the area changed. (Click the images to make them larger, and click once again to see the full size image.)

To view these images in person, to view the George Pepperdine College records or other collections, or do research on any of these materials or other collections in the archives, please contact Katie Richardson, Archivist for Special Collections and University Archives, at katie.richardson@pepperdine.edu or (310) 506-4323.